E-media—Putting the “Super” in Superhighway!

Josh Neisler, Director of Library Services, UIC

The librarian cradles the phone receiver between her shoulder and ear and peers at her computer screen. She clicks feverishly through pages of FAQ’s, trying to figure out why the patron on the other end of the phone can’t get an e-book onto his tablet. The call has gone on for fifteen minutes now, with precious little progress. In that time four different people have approached the desk only to drift away after noticing that the librarian was busy.

Sound familiar? Your library has invested a lot of money in digital resources, and you want circulation to grow. But digital resources also come with special challenges. Vendors provide many pages of FAQ’s on their websites, but largely leave it to you to provide the technical support patrons need. Those interactions, whether in person or by phone, are often time consuming and technical. Library patrons and staff members possess varied levels of comfort and proficiency with digital resources and the array of devices on which they can be accessed. All of this creates a bottleneck in your customer service highway – five lanes of customer traffic reduced to one, nobody moving, and everybody frustrated. It also hinders e-media circulation by creating unnecessary barriers to patron access.

Unique can help! Increase your Library’s digital media circulation and dazzle your customers! Our experts are available by phone, email, or chat seven days a week to help patrons access the digital resources they want, when they want them. As avid e-media users themselves, our friendly specialists understand patron needs and make patrons comfortable by relating to them as one user to another.

Audio recordings and transcripts of every patron interaction are always available, along with reports on key data points and trends, empowering you with a new level of visibility, accountability, and insight into this growing and strategic service area.

Now is the time to fix the digital media bottleneck and grow digital resource usage. Support for all major e-media platforms is available, and setup is easy. Put our e-media expertise and well-known focus on customer care to work for you.